| Residential to out-perform other sectors over next five years |
Issue: 05 / 2004 |
| The Irish residential market is forecast to beat performance in the retail, commercial and industrial property sectors over the next five years to 2008, economists responding to the eighth annual FINANCE property survey predict. |
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| Risk management: Data integration is key for a successful strategy |
Issue: 05 / 2004 |
| Meaningful integrated risk data allows for the examination of potential losses through such angles as product line, risk category, or line of business Christopher Hamilton writes. However, a survey of 193 senior financial executives showed that the cost of new systems, lack of data standards and cultural resistance create major impediments to integrating data, and thus implementing robust risk management regimes. |
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| Who’s who in finance: Pat Lardner, Director - Head of Institutional Business, Ireland, Bank of Ireland Asset Management Limited. |
Issue: 05 / 2004 |
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| Deal of the Year 2004: First Active deal wins award |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| The Royal Bank of Scotland’s (RBS) €887 million acquisition of financial institution First Active, has been voted the FINANCE ‘Deal of the Year’ 2004 by Ireland’s leading corporates in this, the third edition of the survey. One respondent to the survey said that they voted for the deal due its strategic fit with Ulster Bank, the structure and price of the deal, as well as the speed with which it was executed. Another voted for it because, ‘it demonstrated the ability of an effective management team to execute a transaction that mad sound strategic logic and added shareholder value’. |
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| ABN AMRO sells LeasePlan |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| LeasePlan Corporation, the operational multi-brand car leasing and fleet management service company, is being sold by ABN AMRO to a consortium led by Volkswagen Group for E2.13 billion. |
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| Benchmark bond issue by NTMA |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| The National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA) sold €600 million of its 4.5 p.c. treasury bond 2020 at auction on April 15th at a yield of 4.658 p.c. |
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| Bond yields on upward trajectory |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| Yields of US 10-year treasury and 10-year bunds forecast to increase. |
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| Building a treasury strategy |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| The Heiton Group is one of Ireland’s leading industrial groups, and was recently the target of a bid from the Grafton Group. Treasury plays a critical role in delivering the group’s key objectives, and the goal of the function is to hold a level of debt which ensures an optimum weighted average cost of capital (WACC), while at the same time retaining capacity to borrow money up to our facility limits in order to finance the range of development and acquisition opportunities that exist, says Peter Byers. |
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| ECB rate to remain steady until 2005 |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| Rates in Eurozone could be as high as 3p.c. by end of Q2 ’05 economists say. |
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| EDITORIAL |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| No change predicted until 2005 |
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| Equity rally to continue |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| Performance of global stock markets to improve further. |
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| Euro rates forecast to hold steady for 2004 |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| No rise predicted for the Eurozone, but the cycle is set to turn in UK and US, a panel of leading economists predict. |
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| Finance Act changes to help Ireland face new threat |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| Ireland remains a key location for foreign direct investment, but is facing a strong threat from the EU accession countries and low-cost Asian locations. However, changes in the Finance Act 2004, should make Ireland a very attractive location for regional headquarters and holding companies when looked at it in conjunction with other features of the Irish tax regime writes Jim Dennehy. |
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| Foreign Tax Credits |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| Exposure to taxation in more than one country is a routine risk for an international financial services firm. The foreign tax credit regime is one of the principal means of redressing double taxation. The Finance Act 2004 has improved our foreign tax credit regime in respect of double taxation of dividend income. |
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| Growth in use of takeover schemes continues |
Issue: 04 / 2004 |
| Takeover schemes have finally become part of the landscape for takeovers in Ireland, illustrated by the use of such a scheme in the First Active takeover by Royal Bank of Scotland. While such schemes may not be suitable for many takeovers, they potentially can offer significant advantages to acquirers, Barry Devereux writes. |
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